ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — The United States slapped fresh sanctions on senior Syrian government officials, the family of First Lady Asma al-Assad, and other entities on Tuesday, with the stated aim of pressuring Damascus to bring an end to the country’s civil war, now in its tenth year.
The US Treasury Department announced a list of senior Syrian government official names and entities that the US considers assets to the Assad regime, including British-born Asma al-Assad and members of her immediate family based in the United Kingdom, the Central Bank of Syria, and a number of business networks directly or indirectly related to the Syrian government.
In total, 18 Syrian government officials and entities were targeted “for fueling Assad’s war machine and obstructing efforts to bring the Syrian conflict to an end,” US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Tuesday.
Among other targets are Lina Kinayeh, a key advisor to both Bashar and Asmaa al Assad, Kinayeh’s husband Mohammed Masouti, a member of the Syrian parliament targeted for being a “financial proxy” for the government, as well as military intelligence commander Kifah Moulhem who runs an institution “that has been responsible for the arbitrary detention, torture, and killing of countless Syrians,” US special envoy for Syria Joel Rayburn said in a press briefing on Tuesday.
The sanctions came on the fifth anniversary of the United Nations Security Council Resolution 2254 (UNSCR 2254), which called for a ceasefire and settlement to the civil war in Syria between the Syrian government and opposition movement.
The sanctions ban all Americans from dealing with those blacklisted. Non-Americans “that engage in certain transactions” with the blacklisted persons and entities may also be hit with sanctions, the Treasury Department added, in an effort to further cut off funds for Syrian government under the Caesar Act.
“The Assad regime, with its allies Russia and Iran, thus far has refused to answer the call of UN Secretary-General Guterres and UN Special Envoy Geir Pedersen for a nationwide ceasefire,” Rayburn said.
The Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act (also known as the Caesar Act), launched in June 2020, targets individuals and businesses for making transactions with the Syrian regime. The Act has designated more than 110 individuals and entities for supporting the Assad regime, according to Rayburn.
“While average Syrians suffer and struggle to meet basic needs, the Syrian regime squanders tens of millions of dollars each month on a military that arbitrarily detains and kills Syrian civilians and forces millions to flee away from Syria,” Rayburn said during the press briefing. “It is long past time for this conflict to end so the Syrian people can live in peace again.”
Upwards of 400,000 people have killed and millions of people displaced since the civil war began in 2011, following a brutal government crackdown on protests against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Regarding rising violence in the north of the country, Rayburn added that “our goal is to see those diffuse and to use our good offices to help to de-escalate the situation in northeast Syria,” so that focus will be on the “most important” adversary, the “terrorists and mass murderers.”
According to the local Human Rights Organization in Afrin, Syrian-affiliated forces and Turkish loyalists have kidnapped more than 150 people in different villages in Afrin in December 2020 alone.
Armed factions and proxies have committed violations against civilians and in Afrin, including kidnapping of civilians, arbitrary arrests, raiding houses and cutting down olive trees, according to the organization.
Turkey and its Syrian proxies invaded the Kurdish-majority enclave of Afrin in March 2018, with the stated aim of removing Kurdish forces on its borders. Accusations of human rights violations in the area including land theft have rung out since the invasion, dubbed Operation Olive Branch. Human rights groups and the United Nations have published reports detailing arbitrary arrests, detention and pillaging, among other violations.
Syria’s constitutional drafting group – made up of 45 delegates from the Syrian regime, opposition and civil society – met in Geneva early December to resume the fourth round of talks on drafting a new Syrian constitution. Talks first began in October last year, and were delayed after some delegates tested positive for COVID-19 in August.
Kurdish activists have criticized what they say is the absence of Kurdish rights in proposed opposition amendments to the Syrian constitution.
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